Sorry for the ridiculously long wait for this update. Truth be told, I kinda gave up with this story for a while. But then I decided to try and keep going. Hope too many people haven't forgotten about this story!

Blaine took his hand and lifted Kurt's chin up, making eye contact with him. "I'm fine. But I'm here. Can we at least do something else?"

Kurt got a far-off look in his eye as he thought for a moment, and then he smiled slightly. "You wanna stay for dinner? My friends want to meet you."

"They're all gonna hate me" Blaine groaned, sitting down at a table in Breadsticks.

Kurt patted Blaine's shoulder as he sat down next to him. "Why would they hate you?"

"Hi Blaine!" Rachel said cheerfully. "Kurt's told me so much about you, has he mentioned me at all?" Without giving Blaine time to answer, she continued talking "I'm the lead singer in our glee club at school. I'm singing this great solo this week…"

Blaine felt bad, but he began to tune Rachel out, realizing that what Kurt had mentioned about her being talkative was a bit of an understatement. Blaine looked at the rest of the people at the table, still nervous, and saw Puck spinning the ice cubes in his water. He turned his head slightly and saw Finn glaring at him for a fleeting second before Finn looked down. Why was Finn glaring at him? Blaine wondered if he had done something wrong. The thought left his mind quickly though, as he heard Kurt call out. "Hey Mercedes!" Mercedes walked over sat next to Kurt, and eyed Blaine carefully. "Blaine, this is Mercedes, Mercedes, Blaine." Kurt smiled at his friends.

"So you're the boyfriend?" Mercedes asked.

Blaine smiled and nodded slightly, a bit intimidated by the way Mercedes was looking at him.

"Just be sure to know that if you do anything to Kurt, I will hurt you."

"I-I would never do anything bad to Kurt."

"Damn right you wouldn't. " Her eyes lingered for a second on Blaine, deciding that he could be good for Kurt, and then she turned to the rest of the table. "So guys, did we order yet?"

No one else from glee club was able to make it to dinner, but despite the initial awkward feeling of it all, Blaine began to warm up to Kurt's friends and join in the growing conversations. It was hard for him seeing as he had never really been good at meeting new people, even though he had gained a bit of a confident façade from having to stand up for himself at Dalton, but he was slowly able to laugh along with everyone and enjoy his food.

However, there was one thing that continued to bother him about the night. He loved how all of Kurt's friends acted like a big family, making fun of each other and joking together, but Finn, for whatever reason, seemed really quiet. Blaine wasn't sure if Finn was just a naturally quiet person, but he certainly seemed almost as out of place as Blaine compared to the loud, talkative people around them. Not only that, but Blaine caught Finn looking at him more than once, even though Finn looked away quickly every time Blaine sent him a questioning look.

Blaine waited until he was sure that Finn was busy talking to Puck to lean over and whisper quickly in Kurt's ear, "I don't think your brother likes me very much."

Kurt looked at Blaine in surprise and tilted his head curiously and Blaine shrugged. Dinner continued normally after that, but Kurt watched Finn carefully, noticing that he did seem a bit out of character, especially when he was looking at Blaine.

After everyone had finished up eating and was standing up to leave, Kurt caught Finn's eye and lead him away from everyone else. "What's going on Finn?" Kurt asked him sharply.

"Huh?"

"You've been awfully quiet all night. And don't think I didn't notice you glaring at Blaine. You almost looked like you were in pain."

Finn shoved Kurt playfully but sighed. "I don't trust him."

"Blaine? Why on Earth would you not trust Blaine?"

"I-"

Kurt held up a hand and cut Finn off. "If you were about to say it's cause he goes to Dalton, save your breath. He's a great guy who's just had a hard life. I really care about him and I don't want you scaring him away."

"How long have you known him?"

"A month or so."

"I just-I want to be happy for you Kurt…but he's gotta be a little screwed up, at least from hanging out with people at Dalton."

"He doesn't really hang out with anyone at Dalton."

"Still, he can't possibly be a good influence on you."

Kurt narrowed his eyes. "Finn, everyone has their flaws. Yes, there are some…bad things in Blaine's life. Who could blame him? He's been through a lot. But he's sweet and I really like him. Please don't ruin this."

Finn glanced over at Blaine, who was standing near Puck and Rachel, nodding along to what they were saying and then glanced back over at Kurt and sighed. "Promise me you'll be careful?"

Kurt groaned, but nodded and then pushed his way past Finn and walked towards Blaine. Finn rubbed his hands through his hair and hoped he hadn't made Kurt too upset—he was Kurt's brother, he was supposed to look out for him—and followed behind Kurt.

When they reached the others, Kurt looked at Blaine and smiled. "I should probably drive you back to Dalton, it's getting late."

Blaine nodded and smiled at everyone, "Bye guys, it was nice to meet you."

"You take care of Kurt." Mercedes called after them as Blaine and Kurt made their way to the door.

Blaine looked over his shoulder and nodded curtly at Mercedes. "I will."

"See? They didn't hate you." Kurt laughed as he pulled his car out of the parking lot.

"Finn didn't seem to like me though." Blaine rolled his eyes and looked at Kurt from his spot in the passenger's seat. "What did he say to you?"

Kurt sighed, knowing it was probably better to tell Blaine the truth. "He said he doesn't trust you. He's just trying to protect me but-"

"It's cause I go to Dalton, isn't it?"

Kurt looked at Blaine out of the corner of his eye. "Blaine I told him he didn't have to worry-"

"What if he's right? I don't know what we're doing. I can't sneak out all the time and see you, we're only gonna be around each other once a week if that, and…" Blaine trailed off and Kurt took one hand off of the steering wheel and grabbed Blaine's hand, squeezing it.

"I trust you, and I'm willing to try this."

Blaine smiled at the warm hand in his own, and Kurt's reassuring words. "Thanks."

They rode the next minute or so in silence, their hands still clasped together until Kurt pulled a block away from the school.

"Guess I should probably let you out here, so the car doesn't make too much noise near Dalton."

Blaine tensed, the realization that he was going to have to sneak back to his room finally settling in. "Alright." He said unbuckling his seat belt. Reaching over the center console he gave Kurt a quick peck on the lips and opened up his door.

"Be careful." Kurt said as Blaine went to close the car door. "I'll see you next week."

Blaine smiled nervously and closed the door. He waved slightly as Kurt drove off and then he began walking in the direction of the school. When he reached the place he had left from, he looked inside the gate and saw a guard standing considerably closer than he was earlier that day. Heart pounding in his chest, Blaine took a deep breath and moved inside the gate as quickly and as quietly as he could, thankful to have the darkness of the night on his side.

Once back on Dalton property, he inched slowly to the bushes lining the building, trying to push the feeling of amazement that he was able to get past the guard twice out of his mind. He needed to focus on the task at hand. He continued to move painstakingly slow so as not to make any noise in the bushes, until he reached the window to his room.

Putting his hands above him so he could open the window, he turned his head around to see the guard looking in the other direction. He wondered again why a reform school had such bad security, but just shook his head and opened the window quietly, standing on tip-toes to open it completely.

Taking one last deep breath, Blaine reached his hands up and rested them on the window sill. He kicked off the ground slightly, and went to hoist himself into his room when a pain shot through his arms. It took all he had not to cry out as he crumpled down into the bushes. He should have been more careful. He had forgotten he had gotten into a fight with Karofsky, but he was feeling the effects of it now.

He took a moment to collect himself as he went to stand up and try it again, figuring he would be able to brace himself for the pain this time. Blaine stood up and grasped onto the window again when he heard a deep voice call out "Stop right there".

Blaine froze, unable to turn around and barely able to fully grasp the situation. But as he heard footsteps approaching him he realized the inevitable had happened. He had been caught. Still not moving, he heard the guard begin to say something, but he wasn't able to understand the words. His brain was moving too fast, thinking about Kurt, and how they weren't going to be able to see each other because Blaine was sure to be in a load of trouble. Blaine wasn't quite sure what the punishment for sneaking out was, but he was sure it wouldn't be a light one. Unless the guard hadn't seen much. Maybe Blaine could manage to invent some story about how he had dropped something outside and was going to retrieve it.

Shaking slightly, Blaine found himself following the guard towards the main entrance of the school. This was it. He was going to be taken to the principal's office where he was sure to get his punishment. All he could think of was that he hoped it wasn't too bad. He needed to be able to see Kurt. He hadn't realized how much he needed Kurt. Sure, he loved being with him. But it was more than that. Kurt made him feel normal and happy again. He didn't want that stripped away along with his privileges at Dalton.

Blaine braced himself as the guard led him to Mr. Fullon's door and knocked twice.

"Come in." Blaine heard Mr. Fullon call as the guard opened the door and pushed Blaine slightly to make him walk inside.

"Yes?" Mr. Fullon asked. He looked tired. Blaine hoped he could get away without being in too much trouble.

"I caught him standing outside trying to climb through his window to get to his room." The guard said, looking attentively at Mr. Fullon.

Mr. Fullon looked at Blaine and asked the obvious question, "Why were you outside?"

Blaine had been prepared for this question. He had come up with a story. But when he was actually faced with the question, he completely froze. "I-" He started, but then trailed off, unable to form a coherent sentence.

Mr. Fullon sighed, realizing that he wasn't going to get an answer out of Blaine easily. He had had a long day though, and he just wanted to get this over with. He typed a few things on the keyboard on his desk, looked at the screen, then looked back at Blaine. "Blaine Anderson, right?"

Blaine nodded weakly, and watched as Mr. Fullon typed his name out, and then read something on the screen. After a bit he looked back at Blaine. "You seemed to have been doing much better, but over the past few weeks you've been getting in more and more trouble," he said accusingly.

Blaine avoided eye contact and looked down at his feet.

"Would you like to tell me why?"

Blaine furrowed his brows together and looked up at Mr. Fullon. What could he say? That he had been teased for being gay? That he had met a boy and was sneaking out to see him? "It's been complicated" he managed to choke out.

Mr. Fullon sighed again, unsure of what to do with this boy. He hadn't been this much trouble since he first arrived at the school two years ago. But he was tired, and wanted to give Blaine a bit of a chance. "Well you had been improving quite a lot. I don't know what's gotten into you lately, or what you were doing tonight, but I do need to do something about it. You seem like a good kid though Blaine."

Blaine listened expectantly, hoping that this observation would help him in some way.

"The punishment for sneaking out is very large, Blaine." Blaine's heart caught in his chest as he listened to Mr. Fullon continue. "I can only assume that's what you were doing, and a look at the security cameras would back that up." Damn. How could Blaine be so stupid? Of course there were security cameras. Of course. "I'm going to have to take away your single room-" There goes beer drinking and talking to Kurt on the phone- "and three of your free Sundays off campus" Mr. Fullon finished.

Blaine did his best not to protest; as he knew arguing would get him nowhere. At least his free Sundays hadn't been completely taken away. He could still see Kurt eventually. Blaine nodded slightly, accepting his punishment.

"You can do better than this Blaine, I know you can. You'll have the chance to earn your room back if behavior gets better, but for now, go collect your things. When you're done with that, come back here and I'll take you to your new room."

Blaine nodded again, and began to walk out of the room slightly stunned. He couldn't believe he had let this happen.

Hope you enjoyed this! I'll try and update soon :)

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